The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), version 1.5, revision 1.0, is an industry initiative for system management software that manages system components such as temperature sensors, voltage sensors, fan sensors, power controls, and other system components and devices. IPMI running on a system, such as a server, may be implemented as a distributed management platform where remote systems may access and manage the IPMI enabled system.
The event mechanism is a major feature in IPMI to indicate the occurrence of a system event to the system management software. The occurrence of an event is recorded in the IPMI System Event Log (SEL) as a SEL record. The management software periodically polls the IPMI SEL records to determine if a new event has been registered. The software may take appropriate actions based on the type of event. For example, if the event is Chassis Intrusion, the software may shutdown the system, and may send a corresponding page or message to the system administrator. In some implementations, it may be necessary for each SEL event to be processed one time only.
Under certain conditions, SEL events may be unnecessarily processed more than once. This is because when the system management software reads a SEL record, the IPMI does not indicate that the record has been read. This may cause the SEL record to be processed multiple times in some situations.
A few cases in which a SEL record may be unintentionally processed more than once include where 1) a system reboot has occurred, 2) a new operating system is installed in a host system running the system management software, and 3) multiple system management software processes access the SEL to manage the IPMI.